Beer Forum

I was listening to Drew on an old Sunday show and he barely mentioned using a bucket heater. What that was he did not say, so I looked it up and it is an electric element used to heat a bucket of water:

http://www.google.com/products/catalog? ... CUQ8wIwAA#

So I bought one on Amazon, the spec says "1000 watt, 120 volt power will heat water over 150º" and it has a stainless steel guard to protect the bucket from the heating element. The description says "the heater, while immersed in water, will heat continuously past 150 F. and towards boiling," I've used it on about 3 gallons to heat the water to 160 in 40 minutes.

I think there might be some rust, or I worry because the directions say to use a lime remover from time to time. How can I tell if this is safe to use for heating water for my mash? I'd love to set it up on a timer and have my mash water ready to go when I get up.

Thanks in advance for any help

those are rally just a heating element with a guard. as long as it is clean it should not be a problem. They probably say to use a lime remover occasionally because it would be needed in many places. Like if I use tap water in my clothes iron or humidifier I will get a nice buildup over time. If you have soft water or use RO water you'll eliminate anything precipitating out. 1000 watts would take a long time on a 10 gallon scale but should heat your mash water in a few hours for a 5 gallon setup. if you could keep the water moving it would help avoid stratification as well.

last brew session i went to mash in and found that i burned up the heating elements in my sanke HLT (2 x 3800 watt elements). my hlt was still at ambient temp. not wanting to abort, I had to use the RIMS system to bring 11 gallons of water up to mashing temps. With one 1500 watt element and a constant recirc this took about 3 hours. made for a late night.

I have one...Used it to brew all grain when I lived in an apartment. Now I use it to heat cleaner in my kegs.

I've been using that same heater in my HLT for the past 3 years. No problem at all with rust. Sometimes when I want to brew early in the morning, I will plug it into an appliance timer so it will start heating an hour or so before I get up. This will drastically shorten the brew day. This also allows me to do the mash indoors. This is especially nice in the arctic winters we get here in Nebraska. In addition to not getting frostbite, it also minimizes heat loss in the mash tun. In a pinch, you can also use the heater to stir the mash when you undershoot your strike temperature. Just be sure to keep it moving and to unplug it before you pull it out of the mash. (I learned that trick the hard way with a homemade heat stick a few years back. ).

Wayne

Thanks everyone for your replies. I feel better now about using it knowing others have used it. I do not have hard water at all, so the lime should not be a problem.

I brew on the stove top and as bugeater said, I hope to use an appliance timer and the bucket heater to get my mash water hot before I get up to shorten the brew day. I will also use it in my HLT and maybe even in the kettle to get the boil going faster on my stove.

thanks gain for the advice

I use one in my HLT as well. I also find that it's useful for keeping the water bath I set my propane tank in warm and therefore maintaining a more consistent propane pressure.

Bugeater wrote:Sometimes when I want to brew early in the morning, I will plug it into an appliance timer so it will start heating an hour or so before I get up. This will drastically shorten the brew day.

I start mine around 3-4 hours before brewing to bring 10 gallons to a boil. I use 6-7 gallons plus tap water to dough in. I'll top back up with tap water and will be at sparge temp by the end of the mash.

Bugeater wrote:I've been using that same heater in my HLT for the past 3 years. No problem at all with rust. Sometimes when I want to brew early in the morning, I will plug it into an appliance timer so it will start heating an hour or so before I get up. This will drastically shorten the brew day. This also allows me to do the mash indoors. This is especially nice in the arctic winters we get here in Nebraska. In addition to not getting frostbite, it also minimizes heat loss in the mash tun. In a pinch, you can also use the heater to stir the mash when you undershoot your strike temperature. Just be sure to keep it moving and to unplug it before you pull it out of the mash. (I learned that trick the hard way with a homemade heat stick a few years back. ).

Wayne

What do you mean keep it moving?

I was going to ask about hotspots, how exactly do you guys use this in your mash?